I was wondering if people who have played in the WSOP could give some cool stories. I know we get some bits here and there. When I saw reggiman's picture the other day with his Pokerstars shirt on, I was thinking it must have been awesome to be there.

Here is my thoughts of how the Pokerstars Carribean Adventure might go. I win my seat and schedule my flight and have my passport updated and make arrangements to be gone for a week. When my flight lands in the Bahamas, there will be a lot of poker players all over the airport. Shuttles and cabs going back and forth to the palms. Once I arrive and sign in, I see advertisements for Cardplayer and WPT.

I am met by a Pokerstars representative who provides me with a clothing package that i am required to wear at all times while playing. It has 3 t-shirts, a hooded sweatshirt, a baseball cap, a jacket, and a nice button up shirt. The lobby is filled with online players with laptops, playing games and talking with guys they have only known as Viscera99 or PokerJ9s. The Pokerstars rep gives me my meal tickets for the week. These will allow me to eat at any of the restaurants in the Palms for the rest of the week.

Grabbing a bite to eat, I see Jennifer Harman and Daniel Negreanu at the buffet. TJ Cloutier and Tom McEvoy walk past me with meals to go. Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer are signing copies of books and posters in one of the lecture rooms. The day of the tournament, it is quite chaotic. Everyone you have ever seen on television are here. Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten are present. The big names are doing interviews for WPT.

I get assigned a seat with Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Hoyt Corkins and some people I don't recognize from television. The pros are running over us and the talk is this is the hell table to get assigned to. Gus has raised every pot since we started and if Hoyt doesn't reraise, Daniel does. UTG, I pick up KK. With the blinds at 200/400, I make it 1400 to go. Gus reraises to 2800 and it folds to me and I call. The flop is 4-7-Q rainbow. I bet 1000, knowing Gus will reraise me. Gus reraises me 3000 and I move allin. Gus thinks for a second, then calls me with Q-10 and hit his damn 10 on the river. I shake Gus' hand, Hoyt shakes his head and Daniel shakes my hand and tells me there was no way to get away from that hand. Donk down.

I go back to my room and get ready to go to the beach. I have a long week of railtarding to do

So, was I close? What's it really like those who have been to the big events. I would like to hear about it. Probably not a lot of people been to big events. feel free to make one up if it is a good one

Like most things in life, it's easy to over-glamorize what you haven't actually experienced yet.

The WSOP was held in a big warehouse-like room at the Rio. There was nothing special about the room itself, and while every "name" pro you could think of could be found at one point or another, it was also filled with tons of nobodies looking for their shot at poker fame and fortune.

While there's a lot of buildup to playing in the WSOP, once you're there, it feels like any other regular tournament, albeit one with a number of top pros sprinkled about.

The final table is a different story. I played at both a televised final table (where I came in 3rd) and a non-televised one (where I won). Certainly there was more hoopla surrounding the televised table, and you eventually get the feeling that you're being used as a pawn by greedy networks and corporations, rather than simply playing a big poker tournament. (At one point, they take tons of pictures of you in a room in the back, sitting at a fake poker table, and you're instructed to shuffle chips and put on a serious poker face.) Still, playing in front of the camera and a full crowd of people in bleachers, it's an exciting feeling.

My most memorable moment from the 2005 WSOP wasn't being on TV, however. It was winning the WSOP bracelet, and the anticipation and the feelings that went along with it. As I kept winning hand after hand, the reality started to sink in more and more that I was the favorite to win the whole thing. Here it was, my second WSOP event ever, on the heels of finishing 3rd out of 1049, and I was far and away the chip leader with just a few people left.

Throughout most of my time at that final table, I maintained a quiet yet "tense" demeanor. At first I thought I should fight the feelings of tension, but I found that the tenseness helped me concentrate and focus better, so I didn't attempt to relax. As Kieu Duong (eyegetpaid from Pokerstars) fell to a tiny stack, I knew it was just WSOP rookie Daryl Mixan standing in my way to the bracelet.

I entered heads-up play with a 2-to-1 chip lead, won a few hands, but Mixan came back quickly by making two flushes for big pots. Just as he was a hair away from pulling even with me, I won 4 of the next 5 hands, thereby not giving myself time to fret about possibly blowing it. For the most part, I had something like 900k chips to Mixan's 300k, and a few times I had him down to 100k, but I couldn't finish him off. Every time he was down to 100k, he'd win a few and rise back to 300. This cycle repeated a few times, until I thought I really had him, as we were approaching a break. I had won several hands in a row, and I flopped a straight draw. I bet, he called. I bet, he called. I missed on the river, leaving me with no hand. I bet again, and he raised. I threw my hand into the muck. Mixan now had 270k again, and the limits were going up, making it easier for him to come back and beat me if he gets a few good hands. I was super-frustrated, but I tried to compose myself so he wouldn't notice, and I walked off to be by myself for the 15-minute break.

I saw former NWP-regular Linden Arden during the break. I told him what had just happened on the last hand. He told me that he knew I was going to win, and that I should keep calm and just play my best. The 15 minutes couldn't pass fast enough. I wanted back to the table. I wanted to put an end to this already. The limits were going up to 15k/30k.

7 minutes into the round, Mixan had lost most of the hands and was very short-stacked. I was dealt Td7d on the button. Something told me, "This is going to be the hand you win with." I raised, he 3-bet, and I called.

Flop was K87 rainbow.

He bet out, and I raised. He 3-bet, leaving him with one more bet in his stack. I almost 4-bet to put him all-in, but I figured, "Let's wait 'til the turn, just in case I absolutely hate it."

I envisioned a ten falling on the turn. Part of me almost expected to see it.

A ten hit the turn. "I knew it! I'm going to win with this!", I thought to myself.

Mixan bet out. I quickly called, hoping not to see a set or a better two pair up against me.

He turned over K6, leaving him with several outs (K, 6, 8, 9). We both stood up.

The river was a harmless queen. It was an unreal feeling. I had just won a WSOP bracelet and $347,385!

July 4th, 2005, at 11:33pm became the best moment of my life.

I almost qualified for a wpt event once, but didn't.

PCA was way different last year than what you described. I'll give a more detailed post later.

Awesome story Dan Druff. Must be cool to google your own name and read 50 articles on your win. I saw where you shared the final table with Matt Matros and Cyndi Violette. Negreanu and Kenna James finished 22nd and 31st. Rememeber much about playing any of these people?

Kenna James seems like he is a good guy. Matt Matros seems like a prick. No clue how Negreanu would be at a table with no cameras around.

Good stuff.

Cool durr, thanks.

1st off....Gus doesn't play that super loose aggresive style to get to the final table. What you are seeing is final table play, to a man who (use to at least) has very little respect for the cash involved for 1st. He, is making aggresive plays because he knows people are going to think about the $$$ and laydown allot of hands to him. To get there however, I am sure he is not that loose.

It is fun, and confusing to play in a WSOP event, however the play is pretty awful. I was NOT impressed, mostly lucky Moneymaker Internet toilets you see online, amased one great big huge room.

I would recommend the experience and I learned allot about how to play them now.

I think its at atlantis again this year- could be wrong tho. Until you get to atlantis (or wherever its held) you wont see too many poker players- theres tons of people vacationing there along with (i think) about million that live there.



I direct bought in last year so i'm not sure, but i think its a little less organized than you might hope for (although last year was the 1st time any poker was legally played in the bahamas so maybe this was to be expected).



Nah, theres good restaurants there. Harman/negreanu etc. will be eating there. Also no book signing going on from moneymaker/raymer. I also dont think mike sexton/vince van patten were there at all, but i could be mistaken. Day of the tourny shouldnt be that bad, there are two flights, and they organize the actual tourny pretty damn well (its just the days before that arent organized too well).



"Pros" at least 2 of the 3 you mentioned, won't be running over a table early in a tournament- because early on the tourny is filled with a lot of call-happy donkies who satellited in and are extremely nervous (so they dont bet, but they also dont fold b/c they dont want to be bluffed).

This advice i just gave you is very important, and should prove very useful (if you spend a few hours of your own time thinking about how your mentality is and realizing how others are going to feel like that- then making sure you dont play like a donkey). I cant go into more detail here sorry- but you should be able to figure out more yourself.



The awesome part about having the tourny in the carribean, is tht you can easily forget about the bad play/bad beat/ unlucky setup you had to get knocked out, during the 10 minute (depending which part of atlantis your in) walk back to your room. Its a very nice place- perfect for forgetting your poker troubles.

GL,
-durrrr

wpt carribean adventure last year was cool. Little disorganized as far as cash games the first couple of days . And i think the poker room had to shut down at like 3 am if i remember. All in all pretty cool, atlantis is real nice , tons of shit to do

god damn harvestTOOL....whines about bad players consistently, always has some story of a bad beat as to why he didn't qualify for this or that..think it is pretty clear who the internet toilet tool is.....he resides in HB....

This is greatest thread ever for me personally. I love reading this stuff. Thanks for the contribution guys. Really good sense of what to expect when I hit the big time tournaments.

Didn't even know who Matros was until I came home afterwards and looked him up. All I remember of him was coming into the final table with a super short stack, and going out 9th. I think he busted against me, in fact.

I didn't play with Negreanu at all. He had a monster chip lead in the middle stages, but it somehow evaporated and left him impossibly short stacked going into day 2.

Cyndy Violette (who I had played with once before, at 400-800 at Commerce) is a very nice person and down-to-earth. Many female poker pros are arrogant and obnoxious. Cyndy is friendly and upbeat.

great read druff....can only imagine how tense and nerve racking it must be to play under those conditions..gg...

Yeah, this is cool stuff to read. Maybe regg or someone else will drop some knowledge of their experience before this one dies off. Thanks for the response Druff. I am pretty sure you don't look at your opponents like they are celebrities or anything, but it is cool to find out their real personalities and stuff. Very interesting.

WSOPCAC: I get to the room super-early (30 minutes before the scheduled start) and just sit in my chair thinking about my game. They don't allow IPODS in AC, so I had to listen to the growing noise around me. Slowly my table started to fill, with Daniel sitting 2 to my left, and Doyle sitting 4 to my left. I wasn't freaked out, but rather was starting to figure out how to adjust my strategy since I felt I knew a little bit about both of their games....until Daniel busted about 30 minutes in. I spend the next couple of hours feeling my way around the table, but when I first seriously outplayed a guy (made him committ all of his chips on the turn with 2nd pair vs my nut straight), I knew that I could compete on this level.

On Day 2 I got paid an unlikely compliment when I pushed TJ out of a few pots over the course of 2 hours or so and he made a comment calling me "Junior" and something aluding to the fact that he respected my raises (obv I was bluffing 66% of the hands). The most surreal part was when the 10th place guy got knocked out and we had to sit around and draw pieces of paper to see when we would be INTERVIEWED BY ESPN THE NEXT DAY. I was a little concerned because earlier in the day they asked everyone left to fill out these questionaires that was basically 3 pages of information about yourself, and I answered every single question sarcasticly. Luckily, they had a sense of humor and loved it (else I would have looked like an even bigger rookie on TV).

Gamble, when Daniel and Doyle sat down at the table, do you guys talk and joke around or is it pretty much down to business as soon as everyone arrives at the tables there?

Sounds like a pretty decent experience. How did you end up finishing the event?

He made the final table, and was on ESPN for a little bit. I'll let him tell you the rest.

The people who know each other come to each other's table and joke around and BS and stuff. Back then, I didn't know anyone so I just sat there quietly.

That was the Circuit event where I finished 5th and got on ESPN.

That was before I joined the site. I probably saw it and didn't pay any attention. That's pretty cool you made it on to ESPN. When I finished my master's thesis, I joked I was going to have the cover page put on a t-shirt If I ever made it on ESPN, I would be handing out copies of the episode on DVD...lol. That would be awesome.

Thanks. I personally consider finishing a masters thesis to be a bigger accomplishment then final tableing a 10k event, so I think you have every right to be as proud as anyone on TV. It was definatly a cool experience and got me some decent press around the home state, and allowed me to do cool stuff like pay off all my debt, walk around with money in my pocket, and move out to vegas. Of course now the pressure is on to get back to a big final table, so we'll see how that goes in the next few months.